Butterflies in the Garden FROM THE PUBLISHER
Swallowtails, sulphurs, and skippers. Brushfoots, whites, and gossamer wings. So many different kinds of butterflies!
In her highly praised Style, Carol Lerner shows you how to lure these winged beauties into your garden. She vividly depicts flowers that attract hungry butterflies, as well as plants where they leave their eggs. Her clear text explains what butterflies eat and how they grow -- from caterpillars to full-grown fliers.
Every bright butterfly inside this book also appears on the endpapers. Can you match them all? With some practice, you'll soon be able to identify those that come to your own butterfly garden.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Susan Hepler
From its beautiful endpapers, which depict over three dozen common American butterflies, to its thoughtfully laid-out text, this nonfiction book invites readers to learn about butterflies. Lerner presents in text and pictures the kinds of flowers, weeds, and vegetable flowers that attract certain butterflies. The butterfly families of swallowtails, whites and sulphurs, gossamer wings, brushfoots, and skippers are differentiated and described such that you might go out in the back yard and name the different types you see. With illustrative support, she explains terms such as puddling (flocking to wet spots), proboscis, and nectar in the text. Egg laying is explained without reference to mating. Diagrams show caterpillars developing and molting but one wishes the caterpillars had been identified, too, as this is often the stage in which children discover a butterfly. This is a wider pass than the many books available on monarch butterflies which, here, are only shown in caterpillar stage on a milkweed (if you already know what you're seeing) and on the endpapers. The caterpillar label aside, this book is a pleasant and artful introduction to looking at butterflies, flower attractors, and what's happening right outside your door. 2002, HarperCollins,
School Library Journal
Both books are well-documented resources for identifying butterflies and the plants that attract them. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The relationship between butterflies and the gardens that provide their food and habitat is the focus for this informative work by Lerner (On the Wing: American Birds in Migration, 2001, etc.). She introduces common families of butterflies, showing examples in flight against brightly colored flowers, vegetables, and even weeds that attract butterflies (or caterpillars). An author's note identifies the specific kinds of butterflies illustrated throughout the text, and attractive endpapers identify many more additional varieties. Her carefully researched paintings show all the tiny patterns of the butterfly wings in exquisite detail, and her flowers are beautifully portrayed against pale blue backgrounds with the flowers labeled unobtrusively, providing information without destroying the artistic integrity of the illustrations. Diagrams are integrated into the illustrations to show the inside of flowers, butterfly anatomy, and the life cycle of the butterfly. Ways to attract the lovely creatures to the garden are also included, with suggested plants and projects. The discussion of the butterfly life cycle falls rather awkwardly at the end of the work (after eggs and caterpillars have already been mentioned in other contexts), which could be confusing to children not already familiar with the correct progression of life stages. However, this work will find a ready audience for science lessons and school reports; recommended for the science shelves of larger school and public libraries as well as home libraries. (Nonfiction. 5-8)
Home
